Product Description

'The door closed with a sickening thud of finality, shutting my friends out and leaving me alone with my enemy, a fallen angel, and the monstrous bird creature his ancient lust had created. Then I did something I'd only done twice before in my life. I fainted.' It's all happening, though Zoey Redbird wishes it wasn't. She has her friends back, which is great. But a dark angel has taken over the House of Night, supported by High Priestess Neferet. Not so great. This leaves Zoey hiding out with the (supposedly friendly) red fledglings in Tulsa's prohibition-era tunnels. The not greatness continues. Zoey has some boy-thoughts to distract her, with a chance to make-up with super-hot-ex Eric. But thoughts of the archer that died, semi-permanently, in her arms also keep distracting her. Then he shows up as Neferet's newest minion. Well, hell. Zoey and friends need a plan to put things right, soon, if she's to keep both head and heart intact. - Not suitable for younger readers -

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #539 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

About the Author
P.C. Cast is an award-winning fantasy and paranormal romance author. She lives and teaches in Oklahoma. Her daughter, Kristin Cast, has won awards for poetry and journalism. She also lives in Oklahoma, where she attends Northeastern State University as a biology major.

Customer Reviews

Courtesy of Teens Read Too
Zoey Redbird is back in the fifth installment of the HOUSE OF NIGHT series.

When last we left Zoey, all hell (literally) was breaking loose inside the vampyre school. I am sad to say that her predicament has gone from bad to worse.

Neferet, current High Priestess at the House of Night, has declared war on all human beings. To aid in her quest, Neferet has called forth an ancient evil that cannot be destroyed. Kalona, a fallen angel, has risen from the depths of the earth with Neferet's help. He is an immortal who believes that Zoey is his chosen one - the one who trapped him decades ago inside the confines of the earth.

Zoey's task is great. She and her friends will be forced to use their abilities to help rid the world of Kalona once again, and sabotage Neferet's master plan. By calling the five elements, Zoey, Shaunee, Erin, Stevie Rae, and Damien are declaring a war of their own - to stop Neferet and Kalona, no matter the cost.

The Cast duo has done it again! These ladies appear to be an unstoppable force within the world of YA literature. The energy and integrity of the first four novels has not been diminished in this fifth installment. The characters' personalities are as vibrant as ever, and the story remains engaging and original.

Teenage readers will be drawn to Zoey's everyday, angst-riddled life. Not only does she need to save the world, Zoey needs to solve some major vampyre/human boy drama. These stories are surreal, yet shockingly accurate when it comes to teenagers and their lives.

Here's to hoping for many more HOUSE OF NIGHT novels to follow!

Reviewed by: LadyJay

Great book, great series.
This is a book about a 16 year-old girl who lives in a society where vampires and humans live openly together, of course with a lot of prejudice going on. It is a different take on the vampire myth with an easy reading story that manages to hook up both adults and teenagers. Very very good. If you enjoyed the Twilight series, this one is perhaps a little more childish, at least at the beginning, but still very good and you will like it too.
This is the fifth book in the series, check out the others too.

Total waste of time
Hunted once again picks up just after the events of the previous book. Having escaped alive from the House of Night Zoey and her friends have arrived in the underground tunnels and have now got to decide what to do next. A lot of the first few chapters has Zoey (with the help of a couple of others) explaining what's happened to everyone else. For the readers, this is nothing new and gets very tedious and repetitive. Not all of it had to be spelled out again so clearly and it could have done with some serious editing. Thrown in to the middle of the explanation is a very unnecessary three-some scene which Zoey and several others witness. Doesn't make for a good start.

Having almost had a lighter dose of guy drama in Untamed, this sees Zoey back to having three boyfriends with no real lead up. One of the most frustrating things in this series is that when Zoey is with a guy (whichever one it is) she tends to be thinking along the lines of 'oh he's the one! Why do I bother with the others?' But two pages later she'll be with one of the others, and it's the same thing. She keeps insisting to herself that she's a 'good girl' she doesn't play around, but that's all she does, she never says no. She could try saying no to a guy once in a while, it does happen! Instead she allows herself to get tangled up with three guys, all of whom are tough guys and would be happy to take the others apart for touching her. And it's all just a repetitive circle, it doesn't change form guy to guy. She fights and makes up with all of them, usually by making out.

And the boy drama doesn't include new evil, fallen angel Kalona, whom Zoey finds herself deeply drawn too. Neferet is involved with Kalona as well as working with him, and she's decidedly unhappy about his being drawn to Zoey. As if she didn't hate Zoey enough already.

One of the few guys around that isn't all over Zoey (and straight) is Darius. He's a warrior who was introduced to us a couple of books ago, and when he was, he was very much a warrior. There were signs of it in Untamed, but in Hunted he is almost a different person. When eve he's around Aphrodite he stops being a warrior and goes all, well, giggly with her. Very playful and stupid, when he should be remembering his duty. I liked him when he was introduced, but now he's verging on annoying, switching to being the warrior guy when he's needed to fight, but otherwise he's a teenager again (which he isn't) and takes away the edge that was there with the appearance of his character. The other characters are cliched and unbelievable, with the gay guys way too feminine and only caring about fashion, and the language used by the black characters is the only thing that's more cliched (and very annoying to read).

This book covers no more than about 48 hours in Zoey's life, and it really starts to drag. There is a lot of talk, and a lot of repetitive talk at that, about what's going on, how much trouble they're in, how hard it's going to be for them all to survive and yet very little action. And at least half of this book is dedicated to Zoey and her boy troubles again. This series has always been a bit cliched and predectable, but this book is ridiculous. Readers do not constantly need to be told that Damien and Jack are gay, and we do by now know that Neferet is evil and all around her is badness. There is very, very little plot development in this book, and it's something that could easily be tagged on to the previous book, or the next one, and throw the rest away. I'm hoping that Tempted shows some real improvement because otherwise I will be dropping the series. If you want to read great YA vampire books, read the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. Or the Morganville Vampires series by Rachel Caine. Both have more much kick and less whining.